Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The golden age of the Moor, 12 Dec 2006
I enjoyed this fascinating book very much with its series of articles by different scholars, offering challenging , refreshing and controversial perspectives on the Moors, their histories, cultures, arts,their relationship with Africa and so on.
The Moors are a standard for black history and I was very aware of their history, as an adolescent, when many of my school friends /peers had no idea at all.
For a long while, I couldn't find anything substantial about Moorish history in libraries and a lot of what I found was scanty, or at times perjorative, reinforcing stereotyping: it was literally a needle in a hay stack; I searched in vain, until 12 years ago, when I came across the book in a tiny Birmingham bookshop, stacked away on a high shelf. I nearly fainted!
For those who expect the standard , sanitised version, be prepared for some new ways of perceiving them.
There are essays on race, Berbers, intellectual, scientific achievements/activity, Ziryab of Baghdad, Boabdil, the last Nasrid sultan of Granada, contexual North African culture and history, architecture, Moorish dynasties and states, philosophies, some sociology, pre-historic African history (rock art etc) , references to Roman conquest of North Africa, Tariq, the conqueror of Gibraltar( Jebel -Tariq) Moorish legacies on European literature and poetry and so on.
Many of the essays form dialogues with some of the other essays, in this book. Thus we get often some contracdictory views- with each writer justifying their stance with evidence. So they don't make it easy for you!
You have to ponder deeply on what you've read, given that there is so much about the Moors, that is lost in history, and imagination, and yes, a lot has been romanticised, via Washington Irving and others.
The book goes a fair way in un-demonsing and de-mystifying the Moors ( mostly Berbers, with Arabs in the population). Perhaps some articles do romanticise a little bit, but I was impressed by th research and detail and an incredible amount is learned. It can lead one to seek out more references and books (there is a bibliography at the back) to get a critical overview. Not a bad thing....
- This book fired my imagination and led me to do my own research and writing about the Moors and talk to people about Moorish history.
It led me to find " Leo the African " by the Lebanese-French author, Amin Maalouf, which is a historical novel based on the last days of Al-Andalous (Granada) - a novel I recommend very highly; and to
"Moorish Spain" by Richard Fletcher, a well- balanced and researched book , with some rather surprising and unexpected twists and turns and finally the excellent (in my opinion) "The Alhambra" by Robert Irwin.
Let's hope The Golden Age of the Moor inspires you and gives you plenty of food for thought, for further analysis, critical thought and further investigation.......
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